Disclaimer: I do not own any of the anime characters listed in the story. However, I do own Douglas Kreig (Father), Terry McCormick (Alchemist), Ivan Gredenko (Knight), Rina Kisungji and Vespin Otonashi (Queen).
Knight exited the portal just in time. He landed on the ground hard as he exited the portal. Then he got up and saw a huge camp filled with anime characters, carrying weapons to battle the dark lord's army. He was greeted by Shuurei and the other anime characters.
"Guardian Knight, you have returned," bowed Shuurei. The other anime characters bowed as well. Knight just nodded. Then he remembered something.
"Mori. Where is she?" asked Knight.
"This way," said Ueki. Ueki led Knight to the medical tent where Mori lay almost dead. The other anime characters followed behind Knight. Knight went towards Mori's bedside and muttered a few words. He put his hand on her forehead and a bright light shone on his palm. Mori opened her eyes for the first time in a month.
"Nii-san...," said Mori as she tries to wake up. Ueki came to her bedside.
"Mori...," said Ueki as he held her hand.
"Ueki...," said Mori before closing her eyes.
"Let her rest. She has been sick for a month now," said Knight. Ueki got up and thanked Knight before leaving the tent.
"Now that's done, let me see Saber. I have to return something," said Knight. Shuurei nodded in agreement and led Knight to the sorcerer's tent. There Rina, Rin and Alphonse were waiting for Knight around Saber's glass coffin.
"Remove the cover," commanded Knight. The anime characters removed the glass cover for Knight. She looked very peaceful when she's asleep. Knight took the Avalon from his back and then muttered a few words. The Avalon shone brightly before disappearing. Saber woke up and saw Knight. She jumped out from her slumber and wrapped her arms around Knight's neck.
"Knight, I missed you. I had a dream that you have been killed by Nick Owen," said Saber as she let out a tear.
"It's okay. I can't be brought down by that unskilled madman," said Knight and held Saber more closely to his body. Saber wept on his shoulder.
"Now, now...," said Knight, stroking Saber's blond hair to comfort her. Saber then looked into Knight's eyes before kissing him on his lips. Rina was surprised that Saber passionately kissed Knight when during the course of the Fate/Stay Night series; she was in love with Shirou.
"Saber, I thought you loved Shirou...," asked Rina. Saber turned her head around and stared at Rina.
"Shirou's a faggot. He dumped me for Sakura Mato," said Saber, in a scary tone. That sent chills down Rina's spine while Saber continues with her passionate kissing with Knight. That joyful reunion continued through night. But it was not over yet. The release of the other two guardians is a must in order to defeat Nick Owen.
By the next morning, Rina woke up and got out of her tent, shaken by the attempted assassination on her on that quest, but wanted to move on. She saw a group of characters in blue trench coats with stars and badges decorated all over it. It looks like a military uniform, and Rina remembers where all these characters came from. She walked towards them and asked them a question.
"Characters of Fullmetal Alchemist, have you just arrived?" A woman in the group looked at her and nodded her head. With blond hair and a stiff facial expression, Rina recognizes her as Riza Hawkeye.
"We have retreated from our world as it has been razed by an army of stickmen. Many of our comrades have fallen. We have come to join the Resistance Army," says Riza. The Alphonse pops out from his tent. He salutes the First Lieutenant.
"Alphonse, I thought you have disappeared. Where have you been?" asked Riza.
"I followed my brother to this world to help him defend against the first pre-emptive strike of Nick Owen's army on our world. Right now he's asleep," explained Alphonse.
"Asleep. Where is he?" asked Riza. Alphonse led him to the tent where Edward lay. Riza looked at him for a while and made a conclusion.
"He's dead," said Riza. Alphonse was shocked.
"Dead?! It can't be!" said Alphonse, trying to reject the reality that has just overcame him. Rin then entered the tent.
"Yes, Edward is dead," said Rin. Alphonse started to sob.
"Then why did you keep his body here? Shouldn't we give him proper burial?" asked a very big man. He's also seen crying, possibly sharing Alphonse's pain. Rina recognizes him as Alex Louis Armstrong. Rina is also wondering that if Edward is dead, why still keep his body? Rin answered that question.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," said Rin before starting her long answer.
"In your world, you need to give something in equivalent exchange in order to revive somebody from the dead. It seems so that guardian Alchemist can control the Gates and bring someone back for no cost," answered Rin. Rina was surprised that Rin knew so much about the Fullmetal Alchemist world although she is from the Fate/Stay Night world.
"So where is this guardian Alchemist?" asked Riza.
"Trapped in your world," said Knight as he entered the tent. The Fullmetal Alchemist characters looked stunned when Knight said 'in your world'.
"Bu--But, it's decimated! There's nothing left in there," said Riza.
"Well, there's only one way to find out. We have to go back there," said Rin.
"But how? Roy Mustang destroyed the portal from the other side. There's no other way for us to get back there except that portal," said Riza.
"You came out from a portal? Where?" asked Rina.
"Those were naturally occurring portals. They can spawn anywhere for a limited time, probably for six hours or so. With the right conditions, a portal will spawn, connecting different anime worlds together. We anime characters tried to create a man-made portal, but we don't have the sufficient energy to do so. Right now, only the humans that have control on either the Pen or Pencil are able to create a portal," explained Rin. Rina nods her head in agreement.
"Yeah, but probably we need to wait for another month or so for another portal to spawn," said Riza.
"You don't have to. We have a human here that will create a portal for us," said Knight, pointing his thumb at Rina.
"Rina, you take the FMA characters back to their world to help you find guardian Alchemist and Colonel Roy," said Knight.
"How 'bout you?" asked Rina.
"Someone has to protect these anime characters from Nick's scouts," said Knight with a grin. Rina sighed. She thinks that Knight just needed an excuse so he could spend more time with Saber.
"Alright, are all of you coming along?" asked Rina. Riza and her comrades hesitated for a while but finally agreed. Rina took them out to a clearing outside the tent and with the same ritual, opened the portal and they went in.
"Aah, it's so bloody hot!" complained Winry as she walked with Roy Mustang and Alchemist across the desert. Alchemist was wearing a blue trench coat, and so with Roy, and Winry wears a black jacket to shield her from the sun and a black miniskirt for ventilation.
"Stop complaining. We will reach the safe house very soon," said Alchemist.
"I hope you're right, because we just finished our last canteen of water," sighed Roy Mustang, shaking his empty canteen, hoping to find the last drops of water. Winry sighed in disappointment and started complaining again.
"Now not only we're lost, we also ran out of water."
"NO, WE ARE NOT LOST!" shouted Alchemist angrily. Winry stopped complaining.
"Those bloody stickmen destroyed our world. Now our only hope is to find a portal so we could go into another world," said Roy softly. Then Roy fainted. Alchemist ran towards him.
"Roy, get up! We're very close now. Just hang on," said Alchemist.
"I'm so tired....," replied Roy. Then a sound of something speeding very fast caught Alchemist's ears. He looks up and saw a big artillery shell heading towards their position.
"Oh shit!" exclaimed Alchemist as he grabbed Winry and Roy. He dragged them out before the artillery shell hit the ground they were on. The explosion was so big that it flung all three of them five feet into the air. They landed hard on the sand.
"Ouch!" cried Winry in pain.
"Damn, those guys were always following us," said Roy. Looking over a sand dune is stickmen with tanks and rifles rushing towards them. Alchemist quickly claps his hands and touched the ground. A big wall of sand came out from the ground, blocking the stickman battalion's path. Then Alchemist claps his hands again and sand started to form shapes of people. In 30 seconds, there were 20 commandos made out of sand and Alchemist directed them to attack the stickman battalion.
"That'll keep them busy for a while," said Alchemist as he carried both Roy and Winry by the arms and ran as fast as he could. After a while, tired and dehydrated, Alchemist stopped, put Winry and Roy down, shifted the sand around him and felt for a trapdoor. He found the trapdoor and opened it.
"Quickly come in. Even those sand commandos can't resist that massive army for so long," said Alchemist while he drags Roy into the safe house beneath the trapdoor. Winry followed Alchemist into the safe house and shut the trapdoor. Alchemist claps his hands and the sand outside the trapdoor moves and covers the entry so that the sticks couldn't find that hiding place.
"We'll rest here. We'll go when they move away," said Alchemist. Roy was fast asleep while Winry was shaken by the massive army bent on killing them. She couldn't understand when and why these stickmen came to destroy them, and Alchemist said very little about it. She thought of the meaning of what Alchemist had said when she met him, 'The worlds will fall if I don't go back'.
"Go back? Worlds? Does that mean there are other worlds beyond this world?" she mumbled to herself. Then Alchemist heard her mumbling to herself and responded.
"Hmm?" asked Alchemist.
"Oh, it's nothing," said Winry as she looked away.
"Do you want to know when and why these stickmen came?" asked Alchemist. Winry immediately looked up at Alchemist.
"I understand. I'll tell you. You are considered to be an 'anime character', living in an 'anime world'," explained Alchemist.
"Anime world? I am an anime character? No, no, no, no, no, I'm not an anime character. I'm a human," replied Winry.
"The truth is that you are an anime character in an anime world, created by 'real humans' like me," explained Alchemist.
"If I'm an anime character, then you're not a human. You can use alchemy," shot back Winry. Alchemist sighed.
"Isn't creating people out of sand is breaking the Law of Conservation?" asked Alchemist. Winry became dumbfounded.
"That proves that I'm a human in your anime world," said Alchemist. Loud snores came from Roy Mustang but Alchemist and Winry didn't mind. As long as the stickmen can't find them, it's going to be safe.
Rina and her group of Fullmetal Alchemist characters exited the portal to the Great Desert.
"Well, that's odd. I didn't know that Central has become a desert in one night," said Riza. Rina turned and look at her.
"We're not in the city, its way too infested to land there. We're at the Great Desert," replied Rina. Riza became furious.
"Then why the hell are we in the desert?!" scolded Riza. Rina shushed Riza.
"Hey don't shush me......," and before she could say another word Rina shushed her again. She kept quiet for a while, wondering at Rina's weird actions and retaining her anger.
"Did you hear that?" asked Rina as she put her hands on her ears, trying to capture the sound that she heard.
"Heard what?" asked Riza, still angry, and then the sound became louder. It became apparent that it was a 'whooshing' sound. Riza looked and saw something big heading their way.
"Artillery shell! Run!" shouted Riza and everyone ran helter-skelter. The shell hit the ground hard, throwing sand and dust in all directions. A rhythm of footsteps followed after. They recovered from the ground and saw a massive stickman battalion heading towards their way.
"Aww, crap!" exclaimed Riza as she drew out her gun. She started firing at the stickman soldiers, one headshot by another. But they just kept on coming. Several guys regrouped behind her, took out their rifles and started shooting at the stickmen. But the wave seemed unstoppable. Alphonse drew an alchemic array on the sand and used alchemy on it. It created large cannon out of sand and started firing sand balls at them. Half the stickman battalion was squished by the sand ball and the remaining battalion opened fire. Alphonse quickly created another alchemic array and created bunkers for the squad. The exchange of bullets dealt heavy blows on the stickman battalion. Armstrong dealt the final blow by punching his fists on the ground, creating a ripple effect that tore through the stickman battalion.
Just when they thought they finished the stickman battalion, another battalion consisting of tanks rolled over the sand dunes.
"This is not good.....," said Rina as she saw the tanks aiming their turrets at the bunker.
"Get down!" shouted Riza as a tank opened fire at the bunker. The explosion was immense, it almost destroyed the bunker. Everyone had thoughts of death as the tanks fired one after another at the bunker.
Like being saved by a guardian angel, the tanks burst into flames. Rina and Riza tried to look through the fog of war and saw a figure standing over the sand dune. Riza recognized the shape of the figure and called him out.
"Roy! Roy! We're here," shouted Riza as she came out of the bunker, waving her hand. The figure responded by waving his hand. It was indeed Roy Mustang. Another two figures followed behind him.
"That must be guardian Alchemist and Winry," said Rina. Both the groups walked towards each other to exchange hugs and handshakes. Riza was the first to reach the group, almost running towards Roy and hugged him.
"Roy, I thought you're dead," said Riza, burying her head on Roy's chest. Roy looked at her and opened his mouth.
"If it weren't for Alchemist, I wouldn't be here," said Roy, turning his head towards Alchemist. Rina looked at him and recognizes him as the one in her dream, but now she recognizes that he is Terry McCormick.
"Terry, it's you?! I'd be damned!" exclaimed Rina. Alchemist just shakes his head.
"That's what you call me in the real world. But here, I'm the Alchemist," replied Alchemist.
"Well, no more standing around for a reunion party. We've got another battalion in hot pursuit over us," announced Alchemist. Rina got into position and summoned another portal. They all hopped in and the portal closed behind them.
Author's note: Chapter 5 is live